John Denver wrote about what is true and important in life. One of his most profound truths was "There's only two things that money can't buy and that's true love and homegrown tomatoes."
Growing tomatoes has been a sweet part of my whole life starting with eating bowlfuls of them at my grandmother's home in KY to growing, freezing, and canning them for my own family in IL.
Now, I have moved to TX (HOUSTON area) and was very excited to be able to garden throughout the year. BUT I CAN NOT GROW A TOMATO! I plant them as soon as they come out in the nursery, follow their feeding and watering routine but PITIFUL results !!
Can anyone help?????
Help me grow tomatoes in Texas!!!
Contact your county extension agent about doing a soil test for the area where you are trying to grow. We live an hour and a half north of Houston and we have terrible clay soils in this area. I believe you are the bottom end of the "black land belt" that extends all the way up to north Texas. This clay takes some ammending to make good gardens. We've added washed sand (like the masons use to mix brick mortar) as well as organic matter to our beds. We have tomatoes coming out of our ears we make so many. Your country extension agent should be able to assist you best.
FYI, Guy Clark, a native Texan who knows a thing or two about tomatoes, wrote "Home Grown Tomatoes".
Welcome to Texas - and the Houston area. Had the same problem, then found DG.
I have better luck with fall/winter gardening, but did have to amend the soil with organic matter. Now a mix of top soil, peat moss. tons of grass and other clippings and the compost offerings.
What I did wrong was waaay too much nitrogen - so 30' vines 2 or 3 tomatoes. After following some DG'ers advice the grape toms were producing over 50/day. I have a few plants that have survived the heat (shaded by some overgrown cabbage and parsley) that should give a good crop this fall.
We have clay soil too and I agree with all of the above advice. It takes a lot of hard work and time but it's worth it! You'll have tomatoes to eat before you know it.
Welcome to Texas!
Lin
HI Tillymarie ..Welcome to Texas and howdy fellow Illinoisan I moved here last July and have been learning to re-garden here.
Amending the soil helps alot I have found after already starting tomatoes in the ground but what we have done is get some fertilizer for tomatoes and veggies and a maintenance man at work who gardens told me to dig a hole down so it was under the tomatoes and put a small handful of it in then fill it in and water.
Well we have tried that and I can't say I have "big" tomatoes but they are producing and we are watering at least once a week to keep things alive for now with the heat but once fall hits he says they will take off.
We also have used the fertilizer sprinkled around the rest of the plants and it has made a huge difference in how they are growing.
Phyllis
Tillymarie, Welcom, WELCOM. Sad to say everyone in my area have'nt had any luck with tomatoes this year. The VERY few that i had were eaten by squirrels. The plants are still alive maybe they will produce some tomatoes this fall. Jerry
Tillymarie,
Welcome to Texas!!! I live on the Bolivar Peninsula and have been very successful growing tomatoes and several other vegetables and melons in large containers. I buy the 56 quart containers at Home Depot. They hold 2 cubic feet of Miracle Gro Potting Mix. A tomato cage from Burpee fits perfectly in it. I double stack cages for indeterminates. Fertilize 1 time a week with Miracle Gro. I also spray Ortho Garden Disease Control 1 x a week. I have to water 2 x a day when the plants get large (gallon each time). I spray with BT for worm control as needed. My tomatoes did fantastic this season. I gave away many to neighbors and relatives. I need to learn how to can tomato sauce for the Fall season. I have seedlings under grow lights getting ready for planting in August.
Best of Tomato Growing Luck !!!!
Becky
I posted a bunch of comments here if you read down into the forum topic:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/802919/
I built raised beds at least 8 inches tall and fill with good soil. The 99 cent bags of "Topsoil", "Compost", "Humus", "Potting Soil" at Wal-Mart are 90% trash and 10% soil. I would avoid them. A couple of bags of Black Kow composted manure ($5 a bag) will go a long way to improving your soil. You want nice loose soil.
I plant tomato plants as early as possible, anywhere from March 5th through 12th. I do have to protect them from frost sometimes. I mix a large handful of slow release fertilizer either TomatoTone 4-7-10, GardenTone 4-6-6, or Vigoro Vegetable Food in each hole along with some pelletized/dolomitic lime and plant the tomato plant as deep as it will go, with just a few leaves sticking out of the ground.
I water well the next day, and then twice a week, and then once a week to get plants established. When it gets really hot, I water 2-3 times a week. I put down soaker hoses and then cover them with 4-6 inches of shredded pine bark or pine straw for mulch. So when I water, the roots get wet not the plants (which causes major fungus problems in our damp climate).
By the end of April, my plants are 5 feet tall and a jungle and the plants are loaded with tomatoes. I scatter some more fertilizer around the plants and also water the entire plant (including leaves) with some liquid fertilizer like seaweed/kelp or HastaGro 6-12-6 and let it dry. That kicks the plants into overdrive and I get even more tomatoes.
I harvested at least 30 tomatoes from 1/3 of my plants, and no fewer than 10 tomatoes from 1/3 of my plants, and my cherry tomatoes produced very well again.
Varieties that do well for me:
Cherry: Sungold, Black Cherry, Brandysweet Plum (actually a cherry)
Medium: Arkansas Traveler, Jet Star
Beefsteak types: Gregori's Altai, Hege German Pink
Purples: JD's Special C-Tex, Cherokee Purple, Black Early
In particular, I got over 30 tomatoes each plant from Gregori's Altai, Jet Star, and JD's Special C-Tex.
It is very likely that I will have tomato transplants available next spring at the UrbanHarvest Bayou City Farmer's Market on or around March 1st. Stay tuned to http://www.SETTFest.com/ for news about this as well as our annual tomato festival.
I agree 100% with Becky as far as having plants ready for around the 1st of August and, at least as far as containers, using potting soil or potting mix.
After 2 years of utter failure with any large tomato variety in the fall save Gregori's Altai, I am focusing on cherries this fall. Spring is the time for big tomatoes and big ideas. ;)
welcome to Texas! I planted them in early March in raised beds and didn't do much to them at all and had a great crop. I cut them way back when they stopped producing and they're beginning to leaf out again; hopefully I'll have a fall crop from them. I've also planted a few seeds in pots to put out before too long. Do try the raised beds; I think that's why mine worked.
Feldon30
For the Fall: Silvery Fir Tree (58 days), Eva Purple Ball (70), Gregori's Altai (67), Rose de Berne (75), Momotaro (74), Sun Gold (57) Also I am experimenting with 4 Spring crop plants (Black Krim and Supertasty). I cut them way back and have continued to feed and water to see if they will grow a Fall crop. What say you about my Fall selections??? Also potting mix not potting soil which is too dense for containers IMHO.
Becky
The problem I run into is in October and November, we occasionally get those cold nights in the 40's. That can really suck the flavor out of tomatoes, much like refrigerating does.
Sungold is always predictable and productive and early. I'm growing it as well as Black Cherry and Brandysweet Plum this fall.
Silvery Fir Tree was an early success for me in Spring '07 but after getting spoiled by the robust flavors of many other tomatoes, it is rather one-note. I did not find it to be sweet or rich, mostly acidic tasting, so if you like that, you'll like SFT. I don't know that I'd grow it again when there are other varieties that produce not much later (Gregori's Altai).
Eva Purple Ball is an odd duck. I see pictures of these plants laden with dozens and they are purported as being mid-season or early. In Spring '07 I didn't get a single tomato. This spring, I only got a few and they were absolutely the last tomatoes I got, after Summer Cider, Brandywine, and Earl's Faux. Maybe they will deliver on the promise for you.
I know Momotaro only by reputation as a sweet Japanese variety. I hope it does well for you. :)
I wonder if Rose de Berne will produce fast enough. Maybe we will have a cool off in early September to allow fruitset and then persistent warm temps late in the season to keep them going and tasting good through ripeness.
Maybe some day you'll be able to place wagers on Fall tomatoes in Texas as you can on racing, the Superbowl, etc. ;)
This message was edited Jul 29, 2008 12:25 PM
This message was edited Jul 29, 2008 12:25 PM
Last Fall was a bust for me. I had dozens and dozens of green tomatoes and not enough time. I tried pickling them and they were HORRIBLE. Think sour x a billion. I hope this Fall is better....we'll see.
Thanks for your input.
Becky
Welcome to the Lone Star State! Many soils. Raised beds work best in Magnolia, tomatoes, same way to plant, pinch off lowest set of leaves, dig hole add a cup of water, cover to at least the next leaves. house builders scraped native soils off before building (my hubby runs a long bed dump sometimes) in the Houston areas, tomatoes like calcium, not too much nitrogen or u get all green, heat n humidity cause rots real fast on certain varieties, usually we have more moisture in hurricane seasons. Mid july thru Sept hardest on gardens, some of us plant to catch shade in mid afternoons. Some of us simply go fallow thru heat, then start again. Good luck!
By the way, Bryan/College Station Aggies have all those good reports you can get thru the County Extension Ofc. Just name a topic!
Wow! I had to be away for a few days and came back to all of these replies! Thank you all so much! Hopefully, I will start again and have tomatoes in TX after all. Texans are the best people!!!!!!! TM
Why, thanky, ma'am.
I planted 7 maters plants in hay bales, they took their sweet time maturing but just today I had to tie one up to the fence because the mater rack was not working. HUGE maters on it. hubby had to do his the traditional way in the ground. I have no weeds or the weeds i do get are so easy to pull out, and his in the ground has the best grass of all the yard. i am just having a problem with getting them to ripen.
Now Hubby is going my way of thinking. We will do raised beds and hay bales next year.
luvs2, you use hay bales, not straw? I'm VERY intrigued by this, and have kept up a little with the threads devoted to it. Hay I can find -- straw, no.
Hay bales are intriguing. Digging down is a real pain. Going above ground this other way sounds a lot better.
Ann
Yes hay bales, I could not find straw. Yes it was hard to "cut" into the bales, I used a kitchen knife and a box knife, boy that was hard. I had my maters from seed in a seed medium in styro cups. Just took out the plant and put in the hay and gave it steer manure about 2 weeks after planting in the bales. Then about every 2 or 3 weeks I feed it Miracle grow liquid feed. Egg shells and coffee grounds have worked also.
Tell me how you do a hay bale from cutting into it to adding soil (amt, etc) anything that would help me do it. Thanks a million and I mean it!!
Ann
hmmmmmm i cut about a 4 inch round hole in the hay about 4 inches deep also. then just put the seed medium (I think I will go with very good potting soil next year) around the mater plant in the hole. Oh yea I put 2 plants per bale. Kinda centered on the different ends. I will go take a picture for ya.
the picture doesnt show much and the hay is about to fall apart now. Will make excellent compost soon.
these are in full sun, and they were very slow to grow. i think they were planted about the 1st of may and I finally got one to ripen on the vine yesterday.
This message was edited Aug 8, 2008 9:29 AM
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/714882/
check this out.